First day out!

[BarnyardChaos]

It's a happy day for mama broody! Her chicks are 2 weeks old today, and I thought she was getting antsy in the brooder coop, so I opened the door and let her bring the babies outside for the first time. And are they ever having a good time! My brooder coop (the "Nursery") is a separate structure apart from the main coop and run, doesn't have a run fence around it yet. I'm taking a chance, yes, but decided to let mother nature have the upper hand in this one.

I first attempted to catch up the chicks this morning, with intentions of moving them into a bigger coop (the "Schoolhouse") I keep just for 2-6 week old chicks before integration to the flock. I caught up the first one, and Mama flogged and bit me, in no uncertain terms she let me know she's NOT done being a mama! So, okay! You win!

Mama is an Australorp hatched in our pen last spring, and this is her first clutch. She has 6 beautiful babies. I've kept all the other chickens inside their run (about 40' x 50'). Mama is herding her babies all around the outside perimeter of the run, introducing them to the flock, and showing them how to hide in the weeds. They're going back and forth through the chain-link fence, and learning they aren't the only chickens in the world. LOL

I don't know whether to let the other birds out of the run for their afternoon free-range fest, or keep them penned up. I don't know if mama hen will bring her babies back to their Nursery coop tonight, or if she'll want to go into the Big Coop, or hide them somewhere else to be raccoon bait tonight. I'm playing this by the moment, today. Enjoy the pics!

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Update: All is well tonight, mama and chicks are back in the Nursery coop - after a few rounds of ring-around-the-rosie of the chicken run! Towards evening, she wanted to go into the big run and coop with the flock, so I let her. Mistake! She got so busy chasing and fighting anyone who looked sideways at a chick, that she abandoned them to pick a fight on the other side of the run. Poor little things looked so lost among all those big chickens! Not a single one pecked at them (yet), they were just curious. I got her back out of there, chicks followed, and after another ring around the run, she went into the Nursery. Chicks followed. Whew!

I caught sight of her earlier taking a dust bath (ahhh! must've felt sooo good), and all the little chicks joining in. So cute! I had worried about security being in the open without a rooster watching over them, but she picked a great spot to spend the afternoon - between the run and another fenceline (about 8' apart) with plenty of tall, thick weeds to hide in, shade, bugs, and dirt path to scratch and bathe.

I really need to get some run fencing around that Nursery Coop. Put that on the to-do list, asap.